It has been estimated that the annual cost to the United States of

This is a good one.

Three options (A, B, D) can be ruled out immediately if one can see simultaneous use of "annual" and " year".
Between C and E, E is changing the intention (I don't think meaning is changing) of the sentence by shifting the emphasis to "lost industrial output and tax revenues cost" from "illiteracy".

So we remain with C

(A) "annual" + "a year" --> redundant. Sentence is verbose and awkwardly structured.
(B) "annual" + "a year" --> redundant. "because of" is incorrect idiomatically.
(C) Correct.
(D) "annual" + "a year" --> redundant. Sentence is verbose and awkwardly structured.
(E) Meaning changed.

Can someone explain how D is not the right option.

Original sentence says: at least $20 billion a year

D says: $20 billion a year

In GMAT land, that is a reasonably big change in meaning, to warrant rejection of D (among other errors, which have already been pointed out)

In his book Mr. Kozol estimated that the direct annual cost to the nation of illiteracy in lost industrial output and tax revenues was at least $20 billion. But that, he said, does not include billions of dollars in such costs as crime resulting from illiteracy.
NY times

https://www.nytimes.com/1986/07/22/scie ... ation.html

'Because of' is wrong not due to the noun that follows the phrase. That phrase will usually be followed a noun or its equivalent even in wrong choices. However, when you have' because of', which is an adverbial modifier, It should l have an action verb prior to that. A simple linking verb such as 'is' will not be sufficient. If we were to re write the sentence, as given below, then it might be ok.


Here 'loses' is the essential action verb, if we have to use the phrase 'because of'

It must be also mentioned that B could be correct if it used due to instead of 'because of'.



I do not think OG's explanation has to go so deep into grammar to reject this choice, when the redundancy error is popping up in front of our eyes.

HTH

If we want to use due to as an adjective, we would not want a due to in there.

X is due to Y.
This could be acceptable.

X is $20 billion due to Y.
This is not acceptable. We're not talking about either X or $20 billion separately.

Let me know if I've overlooked something. I'd be happy to know about it.

Look at this as a meaning issue rather than something to do with grammar. The because of is incorrect because it does not give us the right meaning. We are not looking to provide the reason for something here. Instead, we're looking to provide, loosely speaking, a category.

Last year, we lost $20,000 because of bad marketing.
The bad marketing bit identifies the cause of the loss, but not the type of the loss ("category").

Last year, bad marketing cost us $20,000 in lost revenue.
Last year, bad marketing cost us $20,000 in lost profits.
Last year, bad marketing cost us $20,000 in lost goodwill.

You can see here that lost revenue/profits/goodwill is not something that tells us what the problem was (the problem was bad marketing). Instead, it's telling us what that $20,000 was "made of". In other words, the possibility that bad marketing actually led to a much larger overall loss exists. That is, maybe the overall loss was $60,000 (20 in R + 20 in P + 20 in G). So we could even combine those sentences and say something like this:

Last year, bad marketing cost us $5,000 in lost revenue, $10,000 in lost profits, and $20,000 in lost goodwill.

Hello Experts,
MartyTargetTestPrep, GMATNinja, GMATGuruNY, AjiteshArun, AndrewN
It seems that they (choice A and B) are talking about the 'cost of illiteracy' which has no existence in real life. So, can we cancel choice A and B for this reason?
Thanks__

Hello, TheUltimateWinner. The cost of illiteracy answers the question of what may have been estimated—you can speculate on just about anything you want, real or imaginary—so no, I would not place (A) or (B) on the chopping block for the reason you have outlined. Of course, there are other problems with the two answer choices. For instance, when I hit $20 billion a year in (B), I went back to (A) and looked for the same redundancy (after opening with the annual cost). But I would not read too deeply into these sentences. If they express a clear meaning in a concise manner, then they make a compelling case for being correct.

Thank you for thinking to ask me about this one.

- Andrew

It has been estimated that the annual cost to the United States of illiteracy in lost industrial output and tax revenues is at least $20 billion a year.

(A) the annual cost to the United States of illiteracy in lost industrial output and tax revenues is at least $20 billion a year -> the annual cost and a year are redundant. Incorrect.

(B) the annual cost of illiteracy to the United States is at least $20 billion a year because of lost industrial output and tax revenues -> Same as A. Incorrect.

(C) illiteracy costs the United States at least $20 billion a year in lost industrial output and tax revenues -> This is better, let's keep it.

(D) $20 billion a year in lost industrial output and tax revenues is the annual cost to the United States of illiteracy -> Same as A. Incorrect.

(E) lost industrial output and tax revenues cost the United States at least $20 billion a year because of illiteracy -> Meaning changed. Incorrect.

So, I think C.

TargetTestPrep egmat GMATNinja

Hi Experts,

How C is better than E?
E seems fine to me- “ because of” is modifying cost correctly.

Posted from my mobile device

dcoolguy

E has a meaning problem. It's saying that TOTAL loss of productivity and tax revenues equals $20 billion, and ALL of this is because of illiteracy. C is telling us that illiteracy costs us $20 billion, but it leaves open that other things may also cause losses that aren't accounted for here. That seems much more plausible. Illiteracy can't be the only cause of losses in the whole country!

Also in E after because of we need Noun and here it is adjectival modifier

If you are referring to "illiteracy", it's a noun.

Hello NarayanaGupta007,

We hope this finds you well.

To provide a bit of clarity here, "illiteracy" - the word that follows the phrase "because of" - is actually a noun; it is an immaterial noun, one that refers to a non-physical or abstract entity; the adjective form of this noun is "illiterate".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

EducationAisle

yes its abstract Noun
In this sentence it has been used as adjectival modifier for USA ....because of illiteracy shows the characteristic of USA except this there is now flaw in sentence in my limited view point , if have any other reason to eliminate that would be great to help us ...but please dont say weired / awkward / not sounds good type answere like other experts
I do agree what you said but consider in sentence reference once how it has been used

yes its abstract Noun in english
In this sentence it has been used as adjectival modifier for USA ....because of illiteracy shows the characteristic of USA except this there is now flaw in sentence in my limited view point , if have any other reason to eliminate that would be great to help us ...but please dont say weired / awkward / not sounds good type answere like other experts
I do agree what you said but consider in sentence reference once how it has been used